Waste minimiser Sam Gray works at the Waimarino Resource Recovery Centre. Photo / Bevan Conley
Waste minimiser Sam Gray works at the Waimarino Resource Recovery Centre. Photo / Bevan Conley
A former transfer station in Ohakune is now a resource recovery centre that diverts about half the waste it receives from going to landfill.
The Waimarino Resource Recovery Centre in Old Station Rd took on its new identity on March 2 last year. It's now run by Ethical Waste, employsfive people on a living wage and diverts about half of what is brought to other uses.
That was up from the estimated 30 per cent diverted when the centre was a transfer station with two staff, waste minimiser Sam Gray said.
The centre is the first of what could be many in Ruapehu District Council's Zero Waste 2040 challenge. Since its Taumarunui landfill closed in October last year, truckloads of waste are being driven to Hampton Downs Landfill, north of Hamilton.
Secondhand items have filled the centre's shed to bursting. Photo / Bevan Conley
Zero waste is the vision. For Gray, 90 per cent diversion would be pretty good. Centres such as Raglan's Xtreme Zero Waste had managed 80 per cent diversion, he said.
The Waimarino centre serves the district south of the National Park. Town residents have kerbside collection of rubbish, recyclables and food waste. It is mainly visitors, businesses and rural residents who bring waste to the centre, which is open from 8am to 3pm, except on Thursdays.
The cost for what goes to landfill is $4.70 for a 60-litre bag, or $42.50 per cubic metre.
Often the diversion from landfill saves money for the people who drop off the waste.
"Some people come in expecting to have three cubic metres of waste and end up only paying for one," Gray said.
Construction workers used to tip everything off trailers and into the waste skips. They were now layering their trailers, with recoverable items like green waste on top.
Unwanted snowboards and ski poles become saleable items. Photo / Bevan Conley
Ruapehu District Council pays the wages of three of the centre staff. The others are paid from the proceeds of items that are brought in as waste but sold instead.
Prices were kept low to keep turnover high, Gray said. The centre's one shed was now full of saleable items. Some had overflowed into shipping containers and Ohakune Events Charitable Trust had sponsored a shelter between two of them.
Winstone Pulp International (WPI) is planning to sponsor a second shelter.
Any food waste is collected weekly. Clothes are the biggest sellers, while there are also plenty of ski poles and snowboards on offer.
"They can be used for so many different things - seats, garden art, fences," Gray said.
Scrap metal, including fridges, can be left with no charge because metal recyclers will pay for it. There are piles for green waste, a separate one for flax and another for concrete.
Mulch is sold, and the centre is taking over agricultural waste disposal from PGG Wrightson.
All this is taking up more space. The centre's shed will be extended this year and a new area is being prepared for car parking.
People were getting used to the idea that they could buy things that other people wanted to throw away, and bring things the centre could sell. Attitudes had changed faster than Gray anticipated.
"I think people want to do the right thing. They've just never been given the chance," he said.
